You might recall I visited a yarn shop last week that I discovered in Gainesville.  The Yarn Works is a knitters paradise.  Yarns of every color and designer.  I met the owner, Barbara and her assistant, Marsha.  Two very talented and friendly women.  I was impressed that every Monday afternoon women gather at the shop to do charity knitting.  The various items are then donated to local groups and others.

The shop also has a knitters guild that meets one Wednesday afternoon a month.  They sit and knit while they socialize and help each other with knitting projects.  I'm planning to return this Wednesday because I need a bit of help with a project I had started.

I browsed around the shop and was captivated by all the different yarns and assessories.  Two or three different rooms hold skeins of rainbow colors in everything from alpaca to cashmere. 

And if you're also a knitter, then you know it's about impossible to leave a yarn shop empty-handed.  And of course, I didn't.  I purchased some needles and a skein of alpaca yarn in beige to make some socks.  This silky ribbon-like yarn below really caught my eye and as you can see, I've already started to make a fashion scarf with it. 

You might remember that funky bobble hat I made for my granddaughter a couple months ago.  Well, I had another skein of yarn to make a second one and have it completed.  The bobbles don't show up quite as well on this darker yarn, but trust me.....they're there and they're not my favorite thing to do.  Glad I learned how to make them, but.......

What has me bewildered is why I didn't pick up knitting needles again until about four years ago.  I let forty years go by without the least desire to touch them.  And now......not a day goes by that I don't knit for at least an hour.  I love the relaxation of it (except maybe when making bobbles) I love the colors of yarn and the feel of it in my hand.  I even resonate with the soft feel of birch needles.  I want to make every pattern I see and just glancing through a knitting magazine makes my hands itch to have the softness of an alpaca wrapped around my fingers.  I guess there's a time for everything and now is my time to enjoy a love for knitting. 

I did go with the docents on Friday for lunch and to tour Haile Homestead but my stamp class got canceled at the Arts Center for yesterday. 

Join me here next time and I'll share with you the Ivy House of Alachua and Haile Homestead along with some photos.

You might recall that before I left for Paris I did a blog about "trying" in relation to my knitting.  I'm afraid I did goof up the Muttons I was making for my granddaughter on the flight over to Paris.  So I put them aside, had another glass of champagne and knew my friend, Alice, would help me when she came to visit us.  And help me she did.

I had directions and yarn to make a really cute hat for Kaela, but it called for "bobbles."  I'd never made these before and while they looked really cute, I had no clue how to do them.  Alice to the rescue!  She made me practice doing them over and over.  (Told her the nuns from grammar school would be very proud of her dictating teaching.....but I DID learn.  Practice makes perfect as those nuns used to tell us)  And yesterday, I actually finished the hat, bobbles and all. (for those of you not familiar to knitting, the bobbles are those "bumpy" knobs on two rows of the hat)  And yes.....I'm very proud of the hat and I think my granddaughter will love it.

And those Muttons?  Well, I'm afraid I had to take them all apart and start completely over.  But again with Alice's instructions, I've managed to actually do the thumb and gusset.  And now I'm waiting on further instructions from Alice (which will have to be via telephone) to do the four finger spaces.  But.....this is what I have so far.

So I guess I'm not as bad a knitter as I think I am.  I just need a good teacher to help me along.  So thanks to Alice for that.  And.....I just have to keep trying! Because it usually pays off in the long run.

See you here next time.......

. . .  AND TRY AGAIN.  Guess that pretty much describes me in many things.  As I kid, I always thought I was a "quitter."  But as an adult, I've proved to myself time and again that I'm not.  At times, I guess you could say I'm like a dog with a bone.  Not sure if this is foolish or tenacious.....

What I'm referring to here is my knitting.  My mom taught me when I was about 12, but like most kids I didn't pay a whole lot of attention.  Sure, I learned the basic knits and perls, but that was it.  Then 43 years ago when I was pregnant with my daughter, I got back to some knitting again.  Not much, but enough to learn how to do cables, increases, decreases and binding off.  Made one sweater for Susan and that was the end of my knitting for 40 years.  Till my friend Alice enticed me back to it about 3 years ago.......

Since then I've done fairly well.  Have made assorted scarves, felted handbags, tried to learn to make socks (without much success) and I have an ALmost finished sweater for my granddaughter.  The project is now at a point where I need Alice's help.....in person.  To learn how to do the neck and sleeves.  And Alice and Barry are flying down to visit us for 4 days the Friday after I return from Paris.  So I needed and was looking for a smaller project to do on the flights next week.  And I decided to attempt the popular fingerless gloves for my granddaughter, Kaela.  This was my first attempt.....

Got all the way to the end.....and got bogged down on the binding off.  With 4 double pointed needles, somehow I got hopelessly lost.  Soooo......I put it aside for Alice to help me with.  Then I started again with another pattern and this is what I have........

Made a boo-boo on this one and yup, you guessed it.......put it aside for Alice to help me with.  Tried to take it apart on my own and got even more confused.  So then.....I ordered a kit that came with the yarn and the instructions.  Don't ask me why I thought this might be better, but anyway this is what it's supposed to look like when finished.

AND hooray.......this is what I have......so far.......

So hopefully it's true that third time's the charm.....because this is the project I'll be taking on the flight with me and possibly I'll return from Paris with a pair all finished for my granddaughter.

Oh, and by the way......if you happen to hear a report of a frustrated woman screaming her way across the Atlantic......ah yup, that will be me.

BRIE UPDATE:  HOORAY again!  Spoke to the vet yesterday afternoon.  He got the report from the Cardiologist and it said, "The heart is completely NORMAL"........and oh yeah, we're all mighty happy here!!!

See you here tomorrow..........

Remember the Pebble Stitch slipper socks I was making?  Well....lo and behold, I actually finished the pair!  And they've already been packaged up and mailed to my granddaughter, Kaela.  She loved them.....she loved them so much she asked if I could make her another pair.  She told me they're "nice and cozy." 

And next to the socks in the photo is the sweater I've started for Kaela.  I love the yarn....it's Sirdar and the color is called Bon Bon.

Oh, and her request for another pair of slipper socks?  Here's the yarn I already purchased.....

It's SO soft to the touch and I think it'll work up nicely into another pair of slipper socks.

So much to knit and so little time......I do try to devote at least an hour a day to knitting though.  I find it extremely relaxing and it's my quiet time.

I'm not sure there's a whole lot of knitters out there who read my blog.....so I'm wondering.....what do you do to relax and unwind?

See you tomorrow.........

I found a pattern in my knitting magazine for "Pebble Slipper Socks" that I thought were really cool......so I began making them.  With so much to do and less time than I'd like......I did finally finish the first one last week.  And yes......I'm mighty proud.

I sent the pattern to my knitting girlfriend in Salem, Alice.  An expert knitter.  She loved it and has since made THREE pairs.  You show off, you!  (only kidding....Alice has been knitting for the 40 years I stopped) 

At one point, I had to pick up stitches.  I'd never learned how to do that.  So off I went to my girlfriend, Denise, on the island.  Another expert knitter and she taught me and set me back on track.  Then.....last week I'd almost finished it.  However, it called for a "3 needle bind-off".....had never done a 3 needle one before. 

Alice had explained it on the phone for me, but when the actual time came to do it.....I was once again hopelessly confused.  So I took out the great knitting instruction book Alice had given me in January when she was down here visiting me.

And Voila!  I did it!  I actually did it and I finished the slipper sock, as you can see above. (Taking bows here)  So.....I have the pattern and yarn with me in Floyd this week and I sure hope to make a dent on working on the other one.  I'm making them for my granddaughter, Kaela....to keep her tootsies warm this winter.  They really do work up quite fast......when you know what you're doing.

I'm now in the Floyd area and I'm hoping to get a signal this week to send you a blog from there.  So stay tuned and I'll see you soon..........